We need to get the word out about the Science Fair that is coming up on August 30th, 9.30am at Gateways Church, on Church St.

It’s not your normal School Science Fair. It has been designed to allow all ages to participate and take some amazing information and experiments home. There will be two ways to display your child’s science projects: one to just display and share, and the other to have the opportunity to be judged according to Science Fair requirements.

An optional Prep Day is scheduled for July 19th at 10am-11:30ish (also at Gateways). Its purpose is to help show some examples of previous boards, relieve any fears parents may have about the Science Day, and answer any questions.

Anyone wishing to participate by entering a project will be able to get information and have questions answered. For those wishing to enter into the more formal section, there will also be specific information on how to properly conduct a Science Fair project and then present that information to Science Fair requirements.

If you would like to enter this judging part but are unable to come to the preparation day to receive the requirements, please email me (Rachel O’D on the Contact page) and I will get them to you.

The Science Fair will be broken into two sections – The morning period will be a time to exhibit your child/children’s work. Please feel free to display your wonderful science work and experiments in any way you like. The main objective is to allow children to have a chance to show their work and look around at what others have been doing and getting some fantastic learning from each other as we go. There will also be an area for any child/children who want their displays to be judged and evaluated according to Science Fair standards, there will also be some placing prizes awarded.

Next a time will be allotted for any child who wishes to present a two minute speech on their science display. Following this we will share a morning tea and spend the remaining time discovering exciting things about science. The children will be able to visit work stations that are designed to teach them about the different aspects of science and take home simple experiments. They will be able to watch a dissection, see the amazing world of Dry Ice, make a bug, bury a fossil, and more!

Even after the Prep. Day, if you believe compiling a Science Fair board at any level may be out of your comfort zone, the day will still be worth your while.

It will be a great opportunity to see everyone’s work, share some morning tea, and finally participate in the Science Workstations that will be run in the afternoon.

The cost is small: $8 for MHE families or $10 per family for non-members, but the benefit our children get will be huge.

Poor parenting and too many hours in front of the TV are being blamed for a “disturbing” rise in the number of children lacking the basic skills they need when they start school.

One speech therapist had to teach a 5-year-old the word “banana”, and one Wellington school is running a programme to teach new entrants basic motor skills that include how to hang up their school bags.

In Wairarapa, Masterton Primary School principal Sue Walters said: “We get a lot of kids who come to school who just can’t form proper sentences.

“They have very limited vocabulary and some are operating at a 3-year-old’s level. You can’t teach kids to read and write if they can’t speak.”

The problem was not necessarily socio-economic, but one of parenting, Ms Walters said. With individual attention from an articulate adult every day, pupils quickly progressed.

…Supporters of the family did come out. With time, more Swedish people are becoming aware of what is going on in their country, despite a virtual media blackout. As the clampdown accelerates, Swedes are speaking out. Jonas Himmelstrand, the president of the Swedish Home Education Association and the founder of the family-policy think tank Mireja Institute, has been traveling the world warning of the dangers of Swedish family and education policies. In the last year he’s been to Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Canada, Hungary, and more — sometimes invited by government. Soon he will be sounding the alarm at the United Nations in New York.

“You have to see [the attack on homeschooling] in the broader scope of the view of family in Sweden,” Himmelstrand told Crisis Magazine, citing the state daycare system that now cares for more than 90 percent of children older than 18 months. “Our government has basically taken on the role of child-rearing to a certain extent.” He also noted that Swedish schools are under heavy criticism for producing poor results, both socially and academically — which may lead more parents to discover how successful homeschooling actually is.

The Domenic Johansson case, while not unique in Sweden, has homeschoolers in particular very worried. “This is a case which seems incomprehensible to many Swedes,” Himmelstrand explained, noting that he understood why it would lead to protests. “It’s not the only case where the social authorities have done something which seems to lack all sense and all humanity.”

We have just heard that the Home School Robotics team has won third year in a row. (Albany Free Range team) Well done and congratulations. It’s just finishing on Stratos TV at present (just before 4pm).